New patent suggests a future Apple Watch could be round

I always find it mildly hilarious to see how much credence tech writers attach to patents. Herewith a case in point. In December 2015 Apple submitted a patent with the catchy title ‘Electronic Device Having Display with Curved Edges’, followed up by a related patent in January 2016. ‘Why is this newsworthy in December 2016’ I hear you ask? The answer is because these patents have only now come to light. ‘But’, I hear you continue, ‘surely big tech companies file hundreds and thousands of patents that never then see the light of day?’ Quite so, so we shouldn’t get too excited, especially when Apple seems to be wholly invested in rectangular Watches at the moment. Nonetheless, the patent is interesting and at least hints at what a future, circular Apple Watch could look like…basically the same as the current Apple Watch but round. Above is one of the patent drawings, here is another:

More details on what these actually mean can be found here. The original patent application is here.